Climate Action by Individual Countries and Cities

This topic will give links for a few representative examples in the (huge) area of what various countries are doing to act against global warming and climate change.  

• United States (separate subtopic)
  

• The Major Economies Forum 

Countries in the Major Economies Forum

• France

• Sweden

• Cities Across the Globe

Major Economies Forum

The Major Economies Forum MEF (see also HERE) is made up of 17 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Their main goal is to advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions. 

The Leaders of the 17 MEF partners agreed that moving to a clean energy economy provides an opportunity to promote continued economic growth and sustainable development as part of a vigorous response to the danger posed by climate change. They identified an urgent need for deployment of clean energy technologies at the lowest possible cost, and established the Global Partnership to drive transformational progress. As an initial step, they requested a suite of Technology Action Plans, which now span ten climate-related technologies that together address more than 80% of the energy sector carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction potential identified by the IEA. MEF partners agreed to lead the work to develop the Technology Action Plans. These technologies include:

• Advanced Vehicles (Canada) • Bioenergy (Brazil and Italy) • Carbon Capture, Use & Storage (Australia and United Kingdom) • Energy Efficiency – Buildings Sector (United States) • Energy Efficiency – Industrial Sector (United States) • High-Efficiency, Low-Emissions (HELE) Coal (India and Japan) • Marine Energy (France) • Smart Grid (Italy and Korea) • Solar Energy (Germany and Spain) • Wind Energy (Denmark, Germany, and Spain)

More Information on the MEF

HERE is a fact sheet on the MEF. 

HERE is a meeting in July 2010 in Washington DC called the Clean Energy Ministerial, which brought together ministers and stakeholders from more than 20 countries to collaborate on policies and programs that accelerate the world's transition to clean energy technologies.

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France

• Worldwatch Institute report

• French government Loi Grenelle 2 website

• Report for La Loi Grenelle 2 (in French, picture at top of page). 
  

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Sweden

• Oil phase-out

• Video - Sweden's Minister for the Environment on Climate Change, Green cars, greening taxation, sustainable cities. 3 minutes.

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  Cities across the globe

Internationally, cities are very active on climate change.  Here is a representative video from Siemens. Here are some links:

• C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group

• 500 European Cities Pledge Big Emissions Cuts

• World Mayors Summit on Climate

• ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability)

Here is a MAP showing the cities signed up for ICLEI.

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